Last year, Pakistanis witnessed the first Black Friday the country had seen. A global trend but a novelty for Pakistan, Daraz introduced the biggest shopping spree of the year on the last Friday of November 2015, giving customers unbelievable discounts on products from leading brands.

Black Friday 2015 broke all sale records ever in Pakistan with the biggest sale of the year.

With a record-breaking 1.5 million customers visiting the website and 55 times more orders than a regular shopping day, Daraz made history.

The shopping frenzy started at midnight, with an influx of millions of people to witness what the first Black Friday of Pakistan had in store for them and get the best value for their money.

Customers enjoyed discounts worth Rs132m across multiple categories, saving big bucks on high value items ─ more refrigerators, washing machines and gaming consoles were sold on Black Friday than they had in the history of Daraz.

Products were flying off the shelves and stocks were constantly updated to make sure that everyone got a chance to fulfil their wishlists.

For the first time ever, leading appliance brands like Dawlance, Kenwood and Westpoint collaborated with Daraz and sold thousands of products for the brands in the lead up to winter ─ completely unprecedented at this scale even in the offline market.

Fashion items and mobile phones were hot favourites from last year’s Black Friday:

• With 50pc off on Lumia, more Microsoft phones sold in a single day than any retailer has made possible in the offline space in Pakistan.

• Fashion sales on the day were almost as much as the total sales made in two months.

• With more than 50pc off on top brands like Victorinox, Fossil, Guess and Rolex, watches and sunglasses category accounted for more than 15pc of fashion sales vs 5pc on average.

Women customers availed the opportunity to shop to their heart’s content:

• Bags from Hobo by Hub sold 675 times more items than on a normal day.

• Shoes from Bata sold a 100 times more than a normal day.

• Cosmetics by Makeup Revolution made sales worth 3 months in just one day.

While male customers stocked up on shoes for the entire year:

• The number of men’s shoes sold on the day were equivalent to the sale made in three months for the category.

Some of the best deals from last year included a 30pc discount on the iPhone 6S ─ which had released a few months before the sale and was the most desired phone at that time.

"Last year we brought Black Friday to all our customers in Pakistan with incredible deals and created a landmark in the retail space for all our partners! This time around, we are working with an even bigger number of partners including FMCGs, fashion brands and banks offering additional discounts, more payment options and the biggest assortment!" said Co-CEO Daraz Group Bjarke Mikkelsen.

Interestingly, the Easypay discount option saw a shift in consumer behaviour – one third of the payments made on Black Friday were debit/credit card payments, this was a clear indication of more reliance and trust in the company as 95pc of the payments were previously cash on delivery.

"We are very happy to have partnered with Daraz for Black Friday 2015 ─ together we moved the boundaries of e-commerce and financial inclusion in Pakistan. Working with the young, smart and dynamic team was an absolute pleasure, and together we were able to achieve things that neither of us could do individually. At Easypay we are looking forward to many more partnerships with our friends at Daraz,” said Head of Strategy & Payments, Easypaisa-Telenor Pakistan Omar Moeen Malik.

Another interesting observation was the spike in mobile app usage – 25pc of the total visits on Daraz.pk were on the Daraz app.

Though a novelty for Pakistan, the Black Friday fever caught on quick as other e-commerce websites as well as retail outlets followed Daraz’s footsteps and jumped the bandwagon, hosting their own mini Black Friday sales.

"Black Friday was super successful last year with Daraz creating history with the biggest range of products and discounts upto 70pc.

Once again we will sweep you off your feet with unbelievable discounts from leading brands – so mark your calendars for November 25 and download the Daraz app today to get the best deals before everyone else," said Co-CEO Daraz Group Jonathan Doerr.

Daraz broke records

Records for more products sold ever on a single day of e-commerce in Pakistan.

Records of the most number of phones or appliances sold by any retailer in one day.

Records of over one third of payments being electronic prepayments, and records for the number of smiles it brought to people who won all the deals.

Daraz won hearts with Black Friday in Pakistan last year and it’s back again with Black Friday 2016 offering customers the best deals and discounts on all products from leading brands, promising great value for money with a much bigger and better event this year.